Two COM students to serve on TMA Executive Council

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(COLLEGE STATION, TX) — Two second-year students at the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine were elected to positions in the Texas Medical Association during the organization’s Winter Conference, Feb. 3-4 in Austin.

Rob Bour was elected next year’s chair of the Medical Student Section Executive Council and named TMA “Student of the Year.” Brad Faglie will serve on the same executive council as an American Medical Association delegate co-leader.

“It’s been a really great year for our chapter,” said Bour, who is serving as TMA chapter president for the HSC College of Medicine during the current academic year. “We have put on a lot of educational programs and sponsored a medical economics course for the first- and second-year students. We also took a huge group of students to Austin last spring for ‘First Tuesdays at the Capitol’.”

First Tuesdays provides TMA and Texas Medical Association Alliance members a chance to visit with state legislators and staffers on the first Tuesday of each month during legislative sessions about critical issues facing medicine and medical patients.

Bour assumes his duties as chair in May. He will be an advocate for medical student issues that include increased funding for graduate medical education and work to influence the TMA on broader medical topics at the national level. He also will be active in planning and overseeing three Association conferences next year, as well as improving membership statewide.

“My involvement is important because it’s really the same reason I chose to enter the field of medicine in the first place,” Bour said. “I look at the healthcare system and see such enormous opportunity for improvement. Getting involved gives me the opportunity to help address these large, systematic problems. I think the TMA is the most appropriate vehicle for doing that, and they have the resources and the knowledge base to make things happen.”

Meanwhile, Faglie, current TMA chapter vice president for the HSC College of Medicine, sees his appointment as a tremendous opportunity for involvement and educating fellow students. As an AMA delegate co-leader, he will help organize the Texas caucus of medical schools.

“There is a big push within the Medical Student Section of the TMA to help students better understand the issues and see the big picture,” Faglie said. “So, we feel like our role is to educate. The medical economics course was a big part of that, as well as the luncheons on topics like graduate medical education funding and insurance policy issues.”

The Texas Medical Association is the largest state medical society in the nation, representing more than 40,000 physician and medical student members. The Medical School Section includes 4,300 student members from every Texas medical school.